The good news...

Hello everyone,

We survived our trip to Puerto Rico...it was our anniversary celebration and though the adventure side of it was slim, the relaxation side was very nice. Sleeping until 10, and then slowly getting up and going to a beach or some other great spot. It was good time off.

We stayed for 7 days in the Normandie Hotel in San Juan, this was fun because it was designed after an old cruise ship. Luckily we had surprisingly large rooms (from what I've heard most cruise ships have tiny cabins). Expedia totally hooked us up. Right next to us was the world famous Caribe Hilton...I didn't know it was world famous until we went over and they mentioned it. They had this fabulous little beach that we should have enjoyed the entire trip. Instead walked and walked and walked....to get to the "good" beaches.

The taxis cost a fortune! We learned the hard way of course. It cost us $8 to go about 6 blocks. When our cabbie dropped us off after 6 blocks we were pretty ticked, and so we walked a lot more after that. The bus system wasn't too easy to navigate since they didn't pass out route maps, but we figured out the basics and were able to get around for a quarter each way.

It was a beautiful town (San Juan) with a long heritage. Christopher Columbus named it and Ponce de Leon was the first governor. Tons of history and a 15th century town.

The last day we rented a car and drove up to the rain forest and did a little hike to a waterfall. It was good fun, and it did rain on us.

Fortunately we didn't run into Wilma...she stayed much further west of us. The weather was surprisingly good. A little cloudy, but for the most part really nice. Warm and muggy, but nice.

Anyway, thanks for all the congratulations. We still are waiting to annouce officially so don't tell everyone yet. It's only been close family and a few friends. We just want to make sure nothing happens to the baby before we spread the news too far. It is still really early.

Also for those wondering, yes MA is sick. She's tried a ton of stuff and so far has kept down some of her food, but...she's sick. It was challenging to find food that she could at least try and stomach. We lucked out and found an all natural smoothie place that had a couple new regulars for the week.

Look at Flickr to get the latest pictures...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chezscoville/

Sad news.

After we went to CA this last weekend to see MA's Grandparents, we learned Monday morning that he passed away earlier that morning on the way to the hospital.  He was in a lot of pain, and I'm very glad that we were there since we were able to help him during his last few days. 

It's obviously with mixed emotions that these experiences come to us.  Grateful that he is no longer in pain and suffering; the last three weeks were exceptionally difficult.  However, we will mourn his departure as we no longer will have his pleasant influence among us. 

We also mourn our Nona's (MA's Grandma - Nona is Grandma in Italian) loss, as she will be alone after some very good years. 

He was a great man, and I wish that you could have met him. 

We'll be in CA later this week for the funeral on Friday.